Tackling prejudices about people with mental illness

Monday marked the beginning of the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Mental Health Week. This is an opportune moment to raise awareness of problems faced by people with mental illness.

A persistent problem remains stigma associated with mental illness. Such stigma is often expressed in negative public attitudes and inaccurate stereotypes. For example, many people still associate mental illness with violence, even though research indicates that people with mental illness are much more likely to be a victim (rather than perpetrator) of violent crime.

This stigma can have devastating consequences for people with mental illness.

First, the general public may avoid them, leaving them rejected and friendless. Second, people with mental illness may internalize these negative stereotypes, decreasing their self-worth as well as their desire for social engagement. Third, decisionmakers such as employers and educators may discriminate against them, further amplifying their isolation and social exclusion.

Much research shows that people with mental illness have high rates of unemployment and college drop-out, as well as contracted social networks.

In other words, there is still much work to do. This has been recognized in the Mental Health Strategy for Canada, which states that national priority 1.1 must be to “increase awareness … and reduce stigma.” This strategy also recognizes that people with mental illness have a critical role to play in changing negative attitudes.

Indeed, there are numerous projects across the country where they boldly act as community educators, going into schools or workplaces to discuss mental illness frankly and openly.

One of these projects is based within my research group at the Douglas Hospital in Montreal. In this project, we have been training people with mental illness to script, film and edit a series of short videos chronicling stigma, recovery, social exclusion and community integration. Three teams have been working away for over a year: one in Toronto, one in Halifax and one here in Montreal.

Each team has complete editorial control over video tone and content, and have been provided with state of the art equipment, as well as facilitation from a skilled videographer.

So far the teams have created 15 videos in total. Now, the focus is on dissemination. The videos are currently being used as pedagogical tools to educate and inform specific target audiences. This involves organized screenings of the films, followed by a panel discussion involving the filmmakers as well as other mental health experts.

We have organized 11 screenings so far to a variety of target audiences including students, health care providers and the general public. This includes screenings at Ryerson University, Memorial University, Dalhousie University, the Jewish General Hospital and Halifax Public Library.

Preliminaryfeedbacksuggeststhatourapproach is an effective way to improve public attitudes and change inaccurate stereotypes. During the current year, our aim is to organize dozens more screenings to any interested parties, especially students, health care providers and employers. This will allow us to reach far and wide into the broader community.